by gabriel_sales | Sep 16, 2013
Small Business lead generation is always going to be difficult. Small businesses are never going to have the marketing budget that IBM or HP have and therefore have to make the very most of the resources at hand.
Fortunately, the move of the marketplace toward a new, digital space gives small businesses a chance to play with the big boys. The democratic nature of the internet means everyone can have a voice and be heard—if your message is strong enough. So, as a small business, how do you increase the effectiveness of your marketing efforts in order to generate more leads?
Here are 3 tips for Inbound Marketing for Small Business Lead Generation:
- Gain credibility
The first step is giving people a reason to listen to you. This means distinguishing yourself from your competitors as the clear thought-leader in your industry. This may be difficult if you are in the same space as someone like IBM, but that doesn’t mean it is impossible. As a small business, you have personality and gumption that IBM lost years ago; show that to your prospects in the form of blog articles, industry reports, educational YouTube videos, webinars, etc. You have expertise in a particular niche, and if you can demonstrate that to your prospects digitally, they will start to recognize you as the only one worth listening to in your space.
2. Create a content plan
You need to be thinking about how your marketing strategy will work temporally. Make sure to take into account when people are planning next year’s budget, common vacation times, industry conferences, etc. For each of these instances, you will want to plan for marketing content to fit the situation. For example, if there are new regulations about to take effect in your industry, you may want to execute an email marketing campaign that lets people know how to avoid compliance issues. It is also a good idea to plan for non-event related content marketing. Establishing a regular cadence for your marketing content (i.e. weekly blog posts, bi-monthly webinars, daily social updates) will help bring prospects back again and again—and eventually turn them into leads.
3. Spread the word
With your thought-leadership content and your content marketing plan in place, you need to push the content out to prospects in every way you can think of. This of course means publishing your content on your website and blog, but it also means pushing it through various social media platforms. And don’t just stick to the most popular social media sites—host your videos on Vimeo and Wistia in addition to YouTube. To get the most exposure (and the most ROI for your marketing efforts) you should also post your content in the “groups” or “circles” social media platforms host as well (i.e. LinkedIn groups). People in these groups are already interested in the content you are sharing and will therefore be much more likely to share it with their own followers.
Inbound marketing for small business lead generation doesn’t have to be difficult or expensive. If you are able to develop marketing content to establish yourself as a credible thought-leader in your industry and then push that content to the right people in the right ways, your prospects will engage in your content and become leads.
If you are having difficulty creating marketing content, finding your ideal market or executing content marketing campaigns, we can help. You can find out more about what we do on our services page.
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us.
by gabriel_sales | Sep 12, 2013
In the world of B2B sales, a lot gets said about what demand generation is.Some companies say it is similar to lead generation; others liken it to nurturing. We believe demand generation includes both of these aspects but is also much more.
However, we don’t think it needs to be complicated either. We have therefore condensed what we think demand generation is into four simple steps. Before we get to the steps, let’s quickly go over the three requirements you need to have before you begin.
3 Requirements for B2B Demand Generation:
- Sales content that educates, verifies and finally convinces the customer to transact
- The right technology to track digital consumption and content repurposed and pushed across media types
- A well-trained inside sales team
With these requirements in place, you can now begin the process of demand generation. So, what is demand generation? Here’s our definition:
Demand generation is the group of sales and marketing tactics focused on driving and closing business. These tactics include: sourcing marketing qualified leads, taking marketing qualified leads to sales qualified, nurturing prospects not ready to buy until they are, and supplying the closer with content they need to close.
To execute successful B2B demand generation, here are four simple steps:
- Put prospects in the pipe (using reps, tools, SEO, SEM and social media).
- Profile, qualify and engage your prospects (using marketing automation and CRM platforms).
- Address one sales objection or buyer stage need at a time (through digital content marketing).
- Push content or nurture until business is closed.
If you would like to know more about B2B demand generation, you can check out our demand generation resource page here. Please feel free to contact us with any questions.
by gabriel_sales | Sep 11, 2013
Since Twitter came on the social media scene in 2006, it has become extremely embedded into both our personal and professional communication. News articles and television programs now constantly reference tweets as a part of their stories. What you say on Twitter can now end your career or make you a million dollars.
What is interesting about Twitter is that it has blurred the lines between personal social interaction and commercial discourse. The informal and conversational nature of Twitter allowed businesses to talk to consumers and for consumers to talk back in a way that is much more authentic and transparent than ever before.
For B2B companies, this means Twitter can be an effective communication tool as well as an effective social media marketing strategy. Here are several tips for how to communicate effectively and increase engagement with your tweets:
3 Ways to Use Twitter More Effectively for B2B Marketing
- Get your audience involved in your story.
Twitter is a place for interaction and dialogue, so you need to facilitate the conversation between your brand and your followers. You can do this by asking questions, requesting opinions or posting links to online polls. When your followers engage with you by responding to your questions or retweeting your content, make sure you recognize them for doing so. Thank people when they give you valuable insight and respond quickly when people ask questions of their own.
- Stay on top of what’s happening in the news.
Twitter is about what’s happening now, not what happened five minutes ago. Therefore, your tweets will be much more engaging if they are related to what’s happening in the present moment. That doesn’t mean you should be tweeting about things unrelated to your business; it means you should share any news relevant to what you do with your followers. Bonus points if you can take news unrelated to your business and make it so, like Taco Bell did here:
- Aim for being valuable, rather than going viral.
In the world of B2B sales, it is going to take something truly exceptional for a tweet to go viral. News about software startups and management consulting services just isn’t as sexy as that Kardashian sister’s latest scandal, and it never will be. Don’t try to keep up with the Kardashians. Just try to connect with your followers by offering them value. Give them industry tips and statistics, share educational blog articles, informative webcasts, etc. The more you give to your followers, the more they will give back. If you can offer enough value, your followers will not only become customers, but they will tweet your praises to the rest of the Twitterverse—something most marketers dream of constantly. In the example below, Pardot offers value and entertains simultaneously–the sweet spot we should all be aiming for.
For more on how to use twitter more effectively for B2B marketing, click here. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us.
by gabriel_sales | Sep 10, 2013
In the world of B2B sales, many people are starting to notice that the sales and marketing strategies that worked a few years ago (trade shows, cold calling, etc.) are no longer as effective as they used to be. With no visibility into how and why this is, it is hard to determine how to rectify the issue. However, Outsourcing Sales Reps can be solution.
As a sales and marketing outsourcing company with over 13 years of experience helping B2B companies jumpstart their sales and grow their revenue, we have been on the front lines of these changes and can therefore offer some insight into what has happened and how to proceed.
From our perspective, selling is no longer as effective as it used to be because more and more products are “bought” then “sold” everyday. This is because the democratic and participatory nature of the internet put power into the hands of the buyer, who now controls the sales process from start to close. B2B buyers now educate themselves about their buying options online and only engage with sales reps when it is absolutely necessary.
In order to adapt to the way B2B leads now like to buy, many companies are choosing to look into outsourcing sales reps who have experience with this new kind of selling. By taking on an outsourced sales force, you gain the knowledge and expertise of a team that lives and breathes sales as well as their experience selling to consumers in a digital landscape.
Here are several instances when outsourcing sales reps from a sales and marketing outsourcing company can be an effective strategy:
- Your core competency is something other than sales/marketing (i.e. manufacturing, new product development, etc.)
- You haven’t updated your marketing strategy since “branding” and “positioning” were the hot buzzwords
- You have yet to look into how a marketing automation platform impacts sales
- Your top employees are currently stuck focusing on sales instead of innovation or serving customers
- You are a startup who has yet to break into the market
- You have a new product to launch and need help getting it in front of your ideal customers
While there are many more instances when outsourcing sales reps can help, these are some of the most common. If you are considering an outsourced sales team to help your B2B sales, there are several things you need to consider to make sure you choose the best team for your business.
If you would like to learn more about how the rules of B2B buying and selling have changed and what you need to do to adapt, you can download our white paper. If you are interested in learning about the sales and marketing outsourcing services we offer, you can visit our Services page.
If you have any questions please feel free to contact us.
by gabriel_sales | Sep 9, 2013
How B2b marketing leads to more profitable outcomes
As a sales and marketing outsourcing company with over 13 years of experience, we have executed countless email marketing campaigns for both ourselves and our clients. During those years, we have learned what works and what doesn’t in terms of B2B lead generation and conversion.
Here are 3 tips to improve your email lead generation:
- Offer value and make it highly visible.
The key to using email to turn prospects into leads is offering value. For B2B products and services, the value offered is usually some form of content. This is known as email content marketing. The content you send can vary greatly, but should generally be educational in tone. You can send short blog articles, important industry news, webinar invitations, video links, industry reports, white papers, etc. By sending your prospects content that has some type of value for them, they start to think of you as an expert in your field and will eventually turn to you when they are ready to make a purchase.
When offering value in your B2B marketing emails, make sure it is the focal point of the entire message. People love getting gifts, and that is essentially what you are doing by offering your content. Make this obvious, and your prospects will thank you in the form of conversion.
2. Think about how emails are viewed.
Think about your own inbox. It is likely that when you open many of your emails, a notice appears telling you the certain images have been blocked. Most email applications (including Outlook) now have the default setting to not display images, so you need to think about this when crafting your marketing emails. Make sure any information that is critical does not appear exclusively in an image.
It is also helpful to think about the display window you view your emails in. For most of us, we view our emails in a preview window, and therefore only see a small portion of the message at a time. Many people only scan the first line of an email before deciding whether or not to delete it, and if your prospect does not see anything of value immediately, you might end up in the trash. Make sure that the value you are offering in your email (whether it is an announcement about a sale, an educational webcast, a new blog post, etc.) is immediately obvious and is visible within the small preview frame of most email applications.
3. Analyze and refine constantly.
Once you have created your email for lead generation, make sure it stands out. Open it up and compare it side by side with your competitors’ emails that have similar goals or calls to action. Are your graphics sharp enough or do they look dated in comparison? Is your overall messaging aligned with theirs? Is your differentiator clear and immediately obvious? What is it about your email that makes it better than all of the others? If you don’t know, it is time to back to the drawing board.
If you would like more information on email lead generation or using email for B2B marketing, click here. If you would like to know more about content marketing in relation to the new rules of buying and selling in the digital era, you can download our white paper here.
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us.
Small Business lead generation is always going to be difficult. Small businesses are never going to have the marketing budget that IBM or HP have and therefore have to make the very most of the resources at hand.
