The model that I'm talking about is Hub and Spoke Model.
What exactly is hub and Spoke Model?
The hub and spoke model consists two part namelyHub content and Spoke content.
Examples of Hub Content:
• Research Reports
• Analysts Reports
• Large Company Hosted Event
• Key Webinar
• White Paper
• ROI Studies
• EBooks
These pieces of content is gated, this means people have to fill their for in order to access the content.
Hub content must be of High Quality. And it generally take a lot of time to create and also resources. This is the pillar content and this will drive Lead into your content.
And then you have a Spoke Content.
The goal of Spoke Content is to drive qualified traffic into your Hub content. So in Spoke Content, you link to your Hub content.
Example of spoke content:
• Blogs
• Infographic
• Videos
• Smaller Webinar
• Case Studies
• Off-Site-Article
So every piece of Hub content, you have to create multiple pieces of spoke content.
Of course, the spoke content must be relevant to your Hub content. Otherwise this content strategy is not going to work.
So this is the Hub and spoke model look like visually.
You have a Hub content and this is your key gated content, such as analyst report and then you have a spoke Content.
So lets say you've developed Case Studies, blogs, videos. Of course, these pieces of spoke content will have a promotional Strategy. You can promote spoke content, when people enjoy your spoke content and click to your hub content.
These means the traffic at your hub content will be more qualified.
Qualified traffic means your conversion rate will also improve. This means the sales theme will following up on leads. And these of course coming to increase conversion.
So let's say, you will launch Hub content on a certain date.
2 months before launching your hub content, you can publish a blog post related to hub content. In these two months, your blog post will start gaining traffic from search engines.
As you know, SEO takes time.
I months before launching hub content, you can publish another blog.
3 weeks before, you can publish a video and couple of days because you can create a webinar.
After publishing your hub content, you can go back to those area published piece of content and place links back to your website to your Hub content.
That's how you're going to drive Organic Traffic into your hub content. It's scalable way to generate consistent and Qualified leads.
Benefits
• Instant Qualified Traffic to your Hub Content• Effective Content Funnels
• Higher Conversion Rates
• Warmer Leads
How do you take it to the next level?
Well B2B sales cycles are complex and they may take many months to complete.
So you can take it up to the next level by developing hub content depending on the stage of the buyers journey.
So lets sat someone's follow your content marketing funnel and download a piece of content on your hub content. Then you need a very effective marketing program to make your early stage prospects download and consume content.
So you need a Early - Mid - Late Sales Hub. And your marketing neutral program should guide your prospects to the next stage.
If you implement this correctly, you'll make life of your sales team much easier.
You need to have an excellent understanding of a buyer's journey in order to do this.
Try These 10 Best B2B Marketing Tools For Buyer's Journey
For example..
If you have 20 tools in the acquisition phase then it doesn't really make a lot of sense because if you have a whole lot of leads. But you have no tools to convert those leads into customers and to activate them, then how valuable is that really so you need to select the right tools for each phase of the buyer's journey.
So there's a great framework out there that stands for the framework. So for obvious reasons this is called the pirate framework.
And it actually stands for Acquisition, Activation, Retention, Revenue and Referral.
Acquisition answers the part of which tools do you use to acquire users.
Activation answers the question of which tools do you use to activate your customers or your users.
Retention tools focus on how do you retain your users how do you get them back to your website back to your solutions back to your products and what tools do you use for that so.
Revenue side of things how do you convert those newly generated leads into customers and most importantly how do you upsell. So how do you sell bigger deals into your existing customer base because usually b2b companies use a strategy called land and expand. So usually the land deal is smaller.
But then the idea is to upsell to that customer and make them feel much bigger.
And lastly, The Referral part is how do you get back links to your website what tools do you use for that how do you get your happy customers talking about your product.
1. Marketo
It is really my go-to tool for marketing automation you can do almost everything with it related to your marketing campaigns.It allows you to create email campaigns drip nurtures and you can apply marketing logic which is great a big part of B2B.
Marketing is scoring your leads based on your behaviour this is also called lead management.
Marketer can do this and will determine whether a person is an MQL based on its course or based on its behavior that has shown on your website.
So maybe it is engaged with a marketing campaign maybe a certain delete has visited certain pages on your website and you can give this person a score.
Marketo facilitates this also marketo synchronizes with your CRM such as sales force. So this is great because if you have all this marketing data but your sales doesn't have access to it really how valuable is it.
So Marketo has a sync with salesforce and other major platforms. So that you can sync the marketing data to opportunities.
For example..
To contacts to leads and this is very valuable for your sales team of course also marketo facilitates account based marketing which is a very important strategy in B2B Marketing.
Site Link : https://www.marketo.com/
Marketer can do this and will determine whether a person is an MQL based on its course or based on its behavior that has shown on your website.
So maybe it is engaged with a marketing campaign maybe a certain delete has visited certain pages on your website and you can give this person a score.
Marketo facilitates this also marketo synchronizes with your CRM such as sales force. So this is great because if you have all this marketing data but your sales doesn't have access to it really how valuable is it.
So Marketo has a sync with salesforce and other major platforms. So that you can sync the marketing data to opportunities.
For example..
To contacts to leads and this is very valuable for your sales team of course also marketo facilitates account based marketing which is a very important strategy in B2B Marketing.
Site Link : https://www.marketo.com/
2. SEM RUSH
SEM Rush is really a critical tool for growth marketing growth hacking also for SEO. And really any B2B marketer should use SEM Rush.
It's really the all-in-one marketing tool kit to help you optimize your website and to grow and succeed
So in B2B Marketing you really should be thinking about SEO even before you start writing content you need to know which keywords you want to rank for which keywords your audience is actually searching on search engines and how you're going to answer their research questions.
But SEM Rush will also show you what your competitors are ranking for and what content they are producing which key which they are using on their website.
So this is very valuable insights because of course they're implementing that because it works right so you can look at the top pages really see what keywords work for them and adjust your marketing strategy accordingly.
So with tools such as SEM Rush and Ahref, you can really analyze your traffic and with proper with a proper SEO strategy you get consistent leads into your system so with PPC,
For example..
There's not much growth there right you only grow if you invest more money but with SEO over time you're going to see your growth exponentially and therefore it's very important for B2B companies to invest in SEO.
Site Link : https://www.semrush.com/
So in B2B Marketing you really should be thinking about SEO even before you start writing content you need to know which keywords you want to rank for which keywords your audience is actually searching on search engines and how you're going to answer their research questions.
But SEM Rush will also show you what your competitors are ranking for and what content they are producing which key which they are using on their website.
So this is very valuable insights because of course they're implementing that because it works right so you can look at the top pages really see what keywords work for them and adjust your marketing strategy accordingly.
So with tools such as SEM Rush and Ahref, you can really analyze your traffic and with proper with a proper SEO strategy you get consistent leads into your system so with PPC,
For example..
There's not much growth there right you only grow if you invest more money but with SEO over time you're going to see your growth exponentially and therefore it's very important for B2B companies to invest in SEO.
Site Link : https://www.semrush.com/
3. ENGAGIO
Engagio is a tool for account based marketing analytics. It gives you insights in what accounts are doing on your website and if they're engaging with marketing campaigns.
This is most powerful when it's also used by the sales department your sales team will have insights in which of their accounts are surging and showing a lot of engagement your sales can use this to reach out to the right people.
Engagio actually also integrates with external parties such as Bambora and this is very valuable because for example..
Tools like Bambora give you intense data so you can actually analyze what certain accounts are researching on external websites and if you have this information you can adjust your messaging and your sales can adjust the outreach approach to make it more relevant for the account.
Site Link : https://www.engagio.com/
So imagine you have great software right you're selling software but your users don't know how to use it this will be a nightmare because if your users don't know how to use your software they will just start using your products of the competitors.
Engagio actually also integrates with external parties such as Bambora and this is very valuable because for example..
Tools like Bambora give you intense data so you can actually analyze what certain accounts are researching on external websites and if you have this information you can adjust your messaging and your sales can adjust the outreach approach to make it more relevant for the account.
Site Link : https://www.engagio.com/
4. USERLANE
So imagine you have great software right you're selling software but your users don't know how to use it this will be a nightmare because if your users don't know how to use your software they will just start using your products of the competitors.
Fortunately, This is where userlane can help juice lane is a tool that simplifies user on boarding with a step-by-step interactive walkthroughs so B2B Marketing shouldn't just focus on lead generation acquisition.
You should also focus on activating people activating our leads because if they don't do it like I said,
It's worthless right, you can have all these leads but if they don't convert it's worthless. So really focus on activation and userlane can help you with this
Site Link : https://www.userlane.com/
You should also focus on activating people activating our leads because if they don't do it like I said,
It's worthless right, you can have all these leads but if they don't convert it's worthless. So really focus on activation and userlane can help you with this
Site Link : https://www.userlane.com/
5. SPROUT SOCIAL
If you're really serious about growth hacking social media then you should take a look at this tool it's an advanced social media management tool which helps you form deep relationships with your followers.
The tool has very advanced analytical social listening and social engagement features of course the tool integrates with all major social media platforms.
So when you have acquired new leads it's very important to activate them and this is possible with Social Media.
For example.. You can have support on social media right so that people contact your business on social media.
And that you answer questions on social media, this is a very critical way to actually activate your users especially if they have a lot of questions about your services.
So Sprout show social also helps with this right you can have a lot of themes on this tool and they can answer questions of your audience and this is great for activation.
But also remarketing right so you have to remarket to your users based on their bias journey. So if they're at the beginning of the sales cycle you have to supply different content to them than when they're far ahead in the sale cycle.
Site Link : https://sproutsocial.com/
Understanding your users is so important but at new companies this is often overlooked you should want to understand what your users do on your website what the conversion funnel looks like and getting feedback of your users.
So when you have acquired new leads it's very important to activate them and this is possible with Social Media.
For example.. You can have support on social media right so that people contact your business on social media.
And that you answer questions on social media, this is a very critical way to actually activate your users especially if they have a lot of questions about your services.
So Sprout show social also helps with this right you can have a lot of themes on this tool and they can answer questions of your audience and this is great for activation.
But also remarketing right so you have to remarket to your users based on their bias journey. So if they're at the beginning of the sales cycle you have to supply different content to them than when they're far ahead in the sale cycle.
Site Link : https://sproutsocial.com/
6. HOT JAR
Understanding your users is so important but at new companies this is often overlooked you should want to understand what your users do on your website what the conversion funnel looks like and getting feedback of your users.
This is where Hot Jar comes into play. So Hot Jar actually provides you a visual tool like a heat map on your landing page where people are clicking.
For example..
You can follow their mouse so where are the where's the mouse navigating what are they typing in the forms.
Basically Hot Jar records your users on your website and then you can use this information to make optimizations. So maybe they're clicking on buttons that aren't not working maybe they don't see the buttons right and you think they would see them but they don't.
So it's really a tool to make sure that your website is performing optimally and you get this data from hardship by heat maps.
Site Link : https://www.hotjar.com/
For example..
You can follow their mouse so where are the where's the mouse navigating what are they typing in the forms.
Basically Hot Jar records your users on your website and then you can use this information to make optimizations. So maybe they're clicking on buttons that aren't not working maybe they don't see the buttons right and you think they would see them but they don't.
So it's really a tool to make sure that your website is performing optimally and you get this data from hardship by heat maps.
Site Link : https://www.hotjar.com/
7. ONE SIGNAL
One Signal is a tool to send push notifications to your subscribers with one signal you can send push notifications to your first 30,000 subscribers for free.
In addition you can test your push notification segment your subscriber list and localize them for different languages being able to segment your subscriber list is valuable, Because you probably have visitors from different time zones.
So if you send all your push notifications at one time, Some people might get it in the middle of the Night some people might get it in the Morning and actually with one signal.
There's a feature there that is called smart delivery right it's intelligent delivery.
So what it does it looks when the user is online and it then sends the push notification so this of course increases the click-through rate and one techno works with all major platforms, Such as IOS,
Android and all the major web browsers.
If you go to mcletic you might have seen that you get a prompt to subscribe to mcletic's push notifications and this is exactly what one signal does.
Site Link : https://onesignal.com
When your customer serves stuff isn't available, You can connect drift to your Gmail account and you can create email sequences. Which take your marketing automation one step further.
So Drift is also great for account based marketing.
For example..
If a big account comes from your website you can actually detect that and you can send personalized messages based for that account and this is very valuable.
And you know, a personal experience is always good and with tools such as Drift you can really do this you can also redirect people to landing pages.
You can just chat with them and it's always great to have the ability there for your visitors to connect to your company's staff straight away. Because it makes your brand feel more human and in B2B Marketing.
Site Link : https://www.drift.com/
Zoom is a neat tool for video conferencing and webinars at the end of the day people buy from people you have worked hard to convert leads into MQLS.
And you've scheduled an appointment with the prospect. It's now time to bring it home through video conferencing.
So if you send all your push notifications at one time, Some people might get it in the middle of the Night some people might get it in the Morning and actually with one signal.
There's a feature there that is called smart delivery right it's intelligent delivery.
So what it does it looks when the user is online and it then sends the push notification so this of course increases the click-through rate and one techno works with all major platforms, Such as IOS,
Android and all the major web browsers.
If you go to mcletic you might have seen that you get a prompt to subscribe to mcletic's push notifications and this is exactly what one signal does.
Site Link : https://onesignal.com
8. DRIFT
Drift is a conversational marketing platform that allows you to include a live chat functionality on your website in addition you can also create chat bots that help to convert your visitors.
When your customer serves stuff isn't available, You can connect drift to your Gmail account and you can create email sequences. Which take your marketing automation one step further.
So Drift is also great for account based marketing.
For example..
If a big account comes from your website you can actually detect that and you can send personalized messages based for that account and this is very valuable.
And you know, a personal experience is always good and with tools such as Drift you can really do this you can also redirect people to landing pages.
You can just chat with them and it's always great to have the ability there for your visitors to connect to your company's staff straight away. Because it makes your brand feel more human and in B2B Marketing.
Site Link : https://www.drift.com/
9. ZOOM
Zoom is a neat tool for video conferencing and webinars at the end of the day people buy from people you have worked hard to convert leads into MQLS.And you've scheduled an appointment with the prospect. It's now time to bring it home through video conferencing.
So like I said in B2B Marketing, It is very important to build relationships because it's really true people buy from people maybe another company has a better product.
But if that other company also has a better salesperson they're able to build a good relationship with that person they'll probably go for that company instead of yours.
So with zoom of course you know you have video conferencing. So you can actually see each other which is great in situations where you know the distance might be too far to travel.
And there's a situation like the CORONA VIRUS.
So really with zoom you can build relationships and that is very valuable in B2B Marketing.
It also includes functionality such as webinars.
So you can actually do a lot of virtual events and this is what i do a lot with zoom.
Site Link : https://zoom.us/
Outreach Plus is a tool for Email Marketing focus on reaching out to people.
For example Mail Chimp is that with Outreach Plus you can connect your own email account to the platform. So this means that the tool will also see the replies that people send to your email marketing campaigns.
This is very valuable because instantly you see if people have a positive reaction or negative reaction to your Outreach campaigns of course. You can also use a lot of tokens.
So you don't have to reach out to every person manually and write the write the name your company the links etc.
Site Link : https://www.outreachplus.com/
But if that other company also has a better salesperson they're able to build a good relationship with that person they'll probably go for that company instead of yours.
So with zoom of course you know you have video conferencing. So you can actually see each other which is great in situations where you know the distance might be too far to travel.
And there's a situation like the CORONA VIRUS.
So really with zoom you can build relationships and that is very valuable in B2B Marketing.
It also includes functionality such as webinars.
So you can actually do a lot of virtual events and this is what i do a lot with zoom.
Site Link : https://zoom.us/
10. OUTREACH PLUS
Outreach Plus is a tool for Email Marketing focus on reaching out to people.For example Mail Chimp is that with Outreach Plus you can connect your own email account to the platform. So this means that the tool will also see the replies that people send to your email marketing campaigns.
This is very valuable because instantly you see if people have a positive reaction or negative reaction to your Outreach campaigns of course. You can also use a lot of tokens.
So you don't have to reach out to every person manually and write the write the name your company the links etc.
Site Link : https://www.outreachplus.com/
