Drive More Successes From The First Half of 2008 - B2B Marketing and Sales Tip #111
As we are fast approaching mid-year, it is a good time to look back at the investments you have already made this year and look for new ways to leverage these investments.
This is a time to make the invisible visible.
Most B2B Marketers have invested in either search engine optimization, paid search advertising or both this year. My guess is you were probably hoping for more quality leads from these investments. Have you considered these ideas to get more bang for your buck?
- Identify visitors that didn’t announce themselves (the companies they originated from). Your web analytics tools can help with this or check out ReachForce Convert for more segmentation level data and visitor patterns.
- Now that you’ve got the companies identified, do you have the right contacts to reach out to and play offense? Consider reaching out with an offer call to action relevant to the pages they viewed.
How about your current customer marketing? Are you doing everything you can to get more from what you already have?
- Is your customer database up to date and complete? 2% of data goes bad every month. Which 2%? Who knows. Your customer database is a great place to start a data refresh project.
- While you’re refreshing, do you have the right buying contacts for additional products or services? If not consider adding these to the customer records so you are ready when you have new or updated product offers.
Many of you invested in events in the first half of ’08. Have those leads been followed up on? According to SiriusDecisions, only 10% of trade show leads are followed-up by Sales. Are you, as a Marketer, nurturing the other 90%?
- For those leads that are non-responsive, make sure that you have the right contacts in those companies. Think about the role of the person you are targeting? Think about the multiple folks involved in a purchase process at your target and their role. You might need different offers or calls-to-action for each member of the decision making unit.
- Continue to nurture leads not ready for sales – dialog is important, it takes 5 to 7 touches to turn a lead into a prospect.
Webinars seemed to have only increased in popularity in 2008. Although the event happens live, the recorded content can be repurposed.
- Did you record the webinar and post on your website? Are you campaigning around the event even though the live version has already happened?
- Have you considered using services like Insight24 to syndicate your webcast to over 13 million viewers?
- Don’t forget about the podcasters. You can easily turn a webinar into multiple podcasts. Make sure short, bite sized content is available for those always short on time.
Summer is often “down-time” for marketing and a time to plan for the blitz of lead generation post Labor Day. This summer instead of “getting ready for what’s to come”, consider spending a little time repurposing what you’ve already done, in between the down time of course.
2 Responses to “Drive More Successes From The First Half of 2008 - B2B Marketing and Sales Tip #111”
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June 25th, 2008 at 11:07 am
The best tip in regards to successful marketing is first understanding your ideal client profile…
Wants vs. Needs — Why They Buy
Attracting your ideal clients through marketing requires you to discover the specific wants and needs of these clients. These wants and needs are often referred to as “hot buttons.” Keep in mind that there is a big difference between wants and needs. They may sound similar, but they’re as different as day and night.
A need is something you have to have. A want is something you would like to have. You need a new car but may be broke at the time. Therefore, you don’t want a new car, because you feel you can’t afford it. On the other hand, if you want a new car, you will probably find a way to get it, even though you may not need it. Wants are much more powerful than needs. Therefore, your marketing message should focus on your ideal clients’ wants.
Hot Buttons — What They Want
Hot buttons are the problems, frustrations and concerns that most clients consider when they do business with companies. Many business owners feel that price is always the number one hot button that impacts their clients. In reality, price is one of their last considerations. Most clients are more than willing to pay a higher price if you offer enough value to warrant the higher price.
Unfortunately, most marketing and advertising looks exactly the same. Everyone uses the same old phrases and platitudes such as, “We’re the fastest, we’re the best, we have the lowest price, we do excellent work,” and so on. And since everyone says this, your clients don’t believe any of it. If you market this way, as most businesses do, your clients can’t determine the true value you provide, so they default to lowest price as a differentiator.
Whatever you do, don’t fall for this trap! If you can only compete on price, it’s time for you to get completely out of that business. It has become a no-win situation for you because there will always be someone willing to undercut your price. Fortunately, the idea that price is most important exists only in the mind of the business owner. All you need to do is provide more value than your competition. When you do, you can actually increase the price you charge for your product or service.
Decision Makers, Influencers & Users — Who to Target
There’s one more area that needs careful consideration. In most business transactions, there’s a decision maker, an influencer, and a user. Here’s a typical example for the service industry. When ordering a pizza, the parents are the decision-makers, the kids are influencers and they’re all users. If you’re in the pizza business and want to sell more pizza, give the kids (influencers) candy for dessert when you deliver the pizza. Then they will continue to influence the parents to order your pizza.
More sales tips and resources here… http://www.readtheanswer.com/index.php?RTA=web2
June 25th, 2008 at 12:22 pm
Thanks for mentioning Insight24. As you wrote, archived webinars, as well as podcasts, videos and demos, can continue to generate targeted sales leads. You readers may be interested in this case study about the results that one customer had with Insight24: http://on24.com/abouton24_casestudies_hubspot_leadgeneration.html?partnerref=b2bleadblog_20080624.
Thanks again!
Cece
Sr. Marcom Manager
ON24, Inc.