No Marketing? No Presence.

When times are hard, costs inevitably come under the spotlight, and as any marketer knows, marketing budgets and overheads are not immune from that. It goes with the job that questions about return on investment, value and worth crop up and intensify.

So it’s a paradox that just at the time businesses need to be fighting for visibility and attention harder than ever before, the very resources that are required to fund this work come under the cosh.

We’re a marketing agency so – obviously – we believe in the power of marketing. We also believe passionately that with good management, marketing will pay dividends, recession or not.

­Unless you’re promoting your products and services somehow, you run the risk of seeing the flow of new business opportunities dry up. Here are our very good easons to keep marketing in the hard times, as well as the time of plenty.

1. Show your market you are open for business

Tough times means having to work harder to generate new business opportunities. Cutting out your marketing altogether – especially at a time when your competitors may be working harder on marketing themselves – will almost certainly put you at a disadvantage. If your current and prospective customers don’t know you’re there, they may forget about you and instead, next time they need to make a purchase, they’ll go to whoever happens to be visible at the time.

2. Do more with less – and be stronger for it

If handled properly, investing in regular, targeted marketing will generate a return in the form of new sales opportunities and conversions. But if you learn to run smart marketing campaigns on less budget, you’ll get better at it, become more efficient, and find that you can do more with less. The result is that when the good times return your business will be in better shape to take  advantage of the upturn.

3. Give your customers the confidence to continue buying from you

Existing and potential customers need to see that your business is still strong despite the difficult economic climate or they’ll lose faith in your ability to deliver. If you look and sound confident, they will, in turn,  feel confident in continuing to buy from you. If nothing else, continue to market directly to your existing customers to let them know you are ready to serve them whenever the need arises.

4. Reinforce supplier confidence for improved financial terms

If your suppliers see you actively looking for business and working hard to achieve sales, they too will have greater confidence in your business. This knowledge that that you are out their fighting for business – which will ultimately benefit them – will send a strong, positive message. Some suppliers may be willing to offer better payment and contractual terms, benefiting your cash flow and liquidity.

5. Raise staff morale to drive your business forward

With so much focus on the economy, sales and the bottom line, it is sometimes easy to overlook staff motivation. Employees naturally look for signs that the business is doing well, and in some cases may be fearing for their jobs. Morale can suffer, particularly amongst the sales force who may feel that they need marketing support to do their job. By proactively promoting your business, you’re showing them that you believe in the company and its future prosperity, and that they can too.

In summary: as with any business function, marketing shouldn’t be exempt from the cost spotlight. It needs to pay its way. But investing intelligently, making your marketing budget work harder and ensuring that every pound spent is accounted for will help you manage, survive and, ultimately, thrive.

Quick follow up of trade show leads is vital

Tradeshows, exhibitions and events are expensive, time consuming and – let’s face it – a lot of work.

The ideal way to make the most of your presence is to have a complete marketing plan for the show, including a strategy for following up the leads you get.

Yet many trade show strategies fall down when it comes to lead follow up.  Reasons include weak qualification by stand staffers, lack of personal information about the lead’s actual requirement and too much time between the event and the follow up.

So if you’re investing in a trade show presence, here are our 6 Killer Strategies for Trade Show Follow Up – to help you make the most of your investment.

1. Plan your lead capture

Define how you will collect leads and what data you’ll gather. Badge scan? Lead form? Define what qualifies as a ‘good’ lead, so you’ll know which ones to prioritise. Finally, try and make a few notes after the conversation with your prospect. This will help your callers personalise the follow up – which will be appreciated.

2. Follow up quickly

It’s OK to appear keen!  Follow up needs to take place within a week of the trade show while the conversation is still fresh in your leads’ minds. Don’t wait for them to contact you – it’s not likely to happen. Start with the best qualified leads and work through, and be prepared to make several-to-many attempts to reach them before your competitors get hold of them.

3. Use a ‘joined up’ follow up strategy

If you’ve captured phone, email and office address details, you can use them all as part of a multi-channel follow up approach. Use different information and marketing collateral, so your leads see more than just the flyer they picked up on your stand. If you picked up information about a specific requirement, be sure to address it.

4. Carry through your trade show message

If you’ve had a special offer, slogan or theme running as part of your trade show marketing strategy and branding, it’s important that you carry it through into your follow up. Special offers can be extended to your leads post-event too, so your leads will feel you’re reaching out to them and making them feel special.

5. Don’t assume your leads will contact you

The fact that your leads stopped by your stand for a chat and picked up a brochure and a free pen doesn’t mean they’ll be calling you as soon as they get back to the office. They’ll have visited other stands too, and will not only have your competitors’ information but will also be getting follow up calls from them.

6. Keep it personal

If you want to give your business an edge when you follow up, make it personal. Thank your leads for stopping by the stand, tell them you know what they were asking about and refer to something relevant about them such as the sector they’re in or the location of the business. Also make sure that if they specified how they want to be contacted, you use that channel.

If you can answer these questions, you probably don’t need to read this post. If not, you could probably do with a marketing plan.

A marketing plan is vital in uncertain economic times, and will bring greater definition, direction, focus, structure – and improved sales to your business.

Without a plan of some kind, you risk being reactive only, on the back foot, stressed and pulled in every direction.

If nothing else, a Marketing Plan is good discipline, and will shape your business marketing mindset. Here are our 5 Reasons Why You Need a Marketing Plan:

Definition: helps define your goals
Your Marketing Plan will help you define your targets i.e. where you want to get to. You’re at Point A now, and you want to get to Point B. Where or what is ‘Point B’? Sales turnover? Number of customers? Gross profit?

Direction: shows how you will achieve your goals
Your Marketing Plan will give you a road map for reaching your goals. If your ‘Point B’ is doubling your sales, you’ll need clear marketing strategy to get you there. Your Marketing Plan will help you identify the actions and milestones to keep your goals on track.

Focus: provides a focal point for you and your team
A Marketing Plan gives you and your whole team something to get behind. Sharing the plan will help your staff understand your business goals, give them confidence that you know how you are going to achieve them and re-inforce the importance of their role.

Structure: Helps you stick to your game plan
Your Marketing Plan is a written document that acts as a reference point. It can stay as a constant even when your business or staff changes. By documenting your Marketing Plan, you are much more likely to follow them through to conclusion.

Improved sales: Helps you understand your market better
Writing your Marketing Plan will make you analyse your key competitors, the prices they charge, how they sell their products and their strengths and weaknesses relative to your own. This is the market you are operating in, and knowing more about it will inform and improve your sales approach.

There are lots of other very good reasons you need a Marketing Plan. It won’t be the answer to all your business problems, but it will help you focus on the areas of your business that matter most: customers and sales.

Business buyers used make do with a conventional ‘buying approach’ which involved ‘being sold to’.

Today, buyers don’t wait to be ‘sold to’. They search the web for what they want, form their

Getting your timing right: key to marketing

own opinions about the reputation and expertise of suppliers, then narrow the field to make their choice.

This means that companies depending only on the “knocking on doors” approach to sales and marketing to book their sales appointments don’t even get a look in.

The buying process simply passes them by, because buyers are using new influencers to arrive at their decision at their own pace, when the need arises.

The ‘sales cycle’ is being replaced by the ‘buying cycle’.

Timing is the great unknown quantity in sales and marketing. If your marketing strategy depends only on outbound prospecting activity to your sales appointments, you should consider adding an ‘inbound’ element to it.  The window of opportunity – i.e. the chance of calling at just the right time – is getting narrower.

Instead, getting on the buyer’s radar before the requirement arises - and staying there – so you’re ‘visible’ when the buyer is ready to make the decision, is the key.

The way to achieve this is to:

• ATTRACT prospects to your business without selling
  

• ENGAGE and nurture prospects, building  influence and authority and staying ‘on the radar’

• CONVERT prospects into clients by ‘being there’ at the time they are ready to buy

Buyers are influenced by whoever manages to ‘engage’ them authoritatively, and to position themselves as a leading expert that can demonstrate knowledge and experience in the field. Getting found on the web, blogging with useful, interesting and relevant content and building up a social media presence.

For these reasons, we believe that what used to be referred to as the ‘conventional’ sales cycle is an outmoded concept.

Instead there is just a ‘buying cycle’. And your marketing strategy should be planned and managed with this in mind.

But targets are not only about ‘how much’. They’re also about ‘when’.

“I really need to hit my target this month. So how about I cut you a deal?”

Ever heard that before?

The problem is that if you’re a B2B sales person or business owner looking to hit your monthly target, you have a massive problem:  you have little or no control over when you prospect is going to be ready to buy.

People aren’t going to buy just because you’re ready to sell. In fact, if anyone pleads with me to buy from them just so they can hit their target this month….sorry, not a chance.

No. People will buy when the time is right for them. And not before.

It’s frustrating. It’s not fair. It’s hard. And it’s tempting to throw away any lead you get that isn’t going to help you reach this month’s (or next month’s) sales target.

Actually, you probably won’t throw it away. But you’ll ‘de-prioritise’ it. You might revisit it once or twice, but over time you’ll let it decay and it’ll leak away out of your sales pipeline.

It’s only natural. You’ve got more important bonus-busting fish to fry this month, so you can afford to let anything but the hottest prospects slip down the priority stack.

But what happens to them? Surely not everyone is a tyre kicker. How did they get into the hopper in the first place? Have you ever thought about:

a) How much money it cost your business to get that lead in the first place, and

b) What it might be worth to keep the lead warm until it is ready to buy?

Research from US-based consultancy Sirius Decisions shows that 80% of prospects that are discarded early because they’re not ready to buy now do in fact go on to buy within 12 months.

So, if the prospects are not buying from you, they’re buying from your competitors. It could be next week, next month, even next year by the time they do.

But they’re going to buy from someone.

There’s no such thing as a ‘sales cycle’. Only a ‘buying cycle’. It’s a message that target-driven businesses and sales people need to listen to.

For your email newsletter to “work”, it must engage your customers and prospects so they open your email and click through to your website.

Follow these 6 Top Tips to create excellent newsletters that will engage your customers and prospects and help to build your subscriber list.

1. Give people a reason to read

Why do a newsletter? Are people interested in your news? Why should they read it? Answer all these questions and recognise that people will be turned off by an overtly salesy newsletter. So it needs to be interesting, relevant and useful for your readers.

Content should be compelling. That way, you’ll keep and add subscribers.

2. Make it look good

Sloppy appearance affects what people think of you. It’s as true for email newsletters as for the way you dress. Keep the graphics neat, simple and consistent with your existing branding – especially with your website.

As with many things in life, appearance and first impressions count.

3. Personalise the experience

Making newsletter conent relevant for every reader is hard. You can use each recipient’s name and company name, but personalise what you write with your own style too. Make it entertaining, even quirky, and project your own – and your company’s – personality.

The old “people buy from people” thing is still true, even with email newsletters.

4. Open me now!

Using a compelling subject line is really, really important. If you can’t think of anything original, you’ll have to go with ‘Here’s our latest newsletter’ – but that’s kind of boring. So try and tap into the interests and issues that motivate your recipients to open your email.

And, of course, make sure you deliver on what your subject line promises!

5. Show and tell

With all your marketing, you should be aiming to build a reputation as an expert authority in your chosen field. So load your newsletter with useful hints, tips, advice and links to free in-depth articles about how to do things better, solve problems or make more money.

The more you give, the more you’ll show you know, so you’ll be perceived as the expert.

6. Think beyond the email newsletter…

So now you’re delivering useful, interesting and compelling information in a well-presented format that’s consistent with your existing marketing media. What next?

The answer is to have two similar versions: the email newsletter, with article excerpts and teasers and links through to…. the full version on a page on your website, or to dedicated landing pages that will convert your visitors to prospects.

But that’s another story.

A classic problem faced by many B2B marketers is that they generate prospects who are interested in purchasing – but just not right now.

Hungry business owners and sales people are mostly interested in qualified leads – where qualified equals ‘have budget and authority to purchase within a defined timeline’.

If only! Because of the necessary focus on short term sales, a great many ‘future prospects’ are contacted once, then allowed to leak away out of the pipeline.

This is to be expected, particularly in the scramble to hit month end targets.

But it’s also a great shame.

Research from Reed Business shows that 77% of sales come from long term leads. In other words, most window shoppers go on to make the purchase eventually – from someone.

Wouldn’t it be great if that someone was you?

At Contacts4Business we talk a lot about lead nurturing – keeping your prospects and clients engaged so that you stay on their radar.

Marketing Automation gives marketers the means to stay in touch with their prospects via behaviour-based email campaigns until the time comes for them to buy.

It’s especially useful for B2B companies with long sale cycles where ROI is difficult to calculate. Here’s how it works:

Lead generation

Leads come in through a lead generation campaign.

Key point: Not every lead is ready to buy now.

Scoring

Leads are assessed using a quantitative approach based on type of response, visit to website, article downloads and other metrics and allocated a ‘score’.

Key point: Scores build with time, based on subsequent contacts with the prospect.

Nurturing

Leads can now be engaged and nursed through the buying decision process depending on the speed with which the prospect wants to move

Key point: Marketing Automation tracks the touch points and keeps the cycle progressing by ‘drip feeding’ relevant content to the prospect.

Closure

Instead of allowing those future prospects to ‘leak away’ from the pipeline because their buying decision appeared too far away, the nurturing campaign keeps them ‘warm’ until the time is right for them to buy.

Key point: There’s no such thing anymore as the ‘sales cycle’. Just a buying cycle, which is driven by the customer’s own buying decision process.

The benefit of Marketing Automation is that it’s a clear solution to a clear and known problem: the disconnect between the motivations of the buyer, the short term expectations of the seller, and the abilities of the B2B marketer to satisfy the requirements of both.

As with CRM and sales force automation systems, Marketing Automation technology is only ever as good as the strategy behind it. If you recognise the problems described here, don’t expect technology alone to solve the problem.

But do expect results in return for a commitment to changing the way you do your marketing.

Something in a presentation shocked me. It serves as a reminder of how fast the world is moving. According to Ashley Friedlein, CEO of Econsultancy, “60% of Apple’s 2010 sales came from products that did not exist 3 years ago”.

Consider this for a moment. Apple have been around since 1976! This got me thinking. Although not all companies are as fast moving as Apple, there’s a lesson here for businesses about keeping up with our market, with what our clients want (or need), with changes in technology. In fact with every dynamic that may affect our company, our customers and the market we work in.

I’m sure we can all think of companies that have not kept pace with the changing market. The UK is, to our shame, littered with the remnants of once great companies that failed to do so.

So, here’s a quick 3 point action plan to ensure we keep up with the times! Use these questions to prick your conscience every day:

1. What do your clients think of you?

Find out what your existing clients think – good and bad. Then act on it. It gives you the opportunity to talk about new services/products you might be thinking about offering and to find out what’s happening in their business.

Choose the best and easiest method of contacting your customers depending on how much time you’ve got, how many customers you want to reach and what you want to find out.

Many companies use online or email-based surveys (you can use our email system C4B Messenger to do this). Others use a telemarketing service to call them.

Using an external telemarketing company will give you a lot of objectivity and if done properly will encourage clients to be frank and not worry about offending anyone. Online surveys allow you to target a lot of people, but the questions need to be very direct and specific and the format doesn’t allow room for “open” conversations.

Whatever you choose, always make time to talk to your customers yourself. Find out about your existing clients…….and keep up!

2. Who are your competitors – and what are they doing?

All businesses face competition. The internet adds competitive pressure because it gives people looking for products and services like yours the power to find alternative suppliers beyond just the local area.

We advise our clients to accept this, and to use it to their advantage. As a business owner, you can find out a lot about your competitors on their website, at trade shows, from their advertising and from their blogs and newsletters. Look at what they are offering and how they market themselves. Find out the prices they charge.

Adjust your approach accordingly, not necessarily by copying what your competitors do, but by improving on it, or by developing an alternate approach that stands out. You may also uncover areas in which you can partner with some of your competitors to mutual benefit, for instance by referring customers to each other.

In particular, keep tabs on companies that you respect for their success or that are working at a level you are aiming to get to. Find out about your competitors…….and keep up!

3. What and where are the relevant industry events and seminars?

Seminars, tradeshows and events give you an excellent opportunity to find out what’s going on in your market. Networking with like-minded people, checking out what other suppliers are offering and learning from expert presenters about likely future trends are just some of the benefits of attending.

There’s always a cost in terms of time and travel but trade shows like TFM & A are free to attend. View them as an investment.

While being surrounded by like minded people is always beneficial, it’s also inspiring to be rubbing shoulders with the successful business leaders and ideas people in your industry. Hearing first hand what they have to say, and listening in to your competitors’ presentations also gives you huge insight into areas that would otherwise be closed off to you.

You also have the opportunity to network, develop relationships and exchange business cards! Then, linking up with these people through online networks like LinkedIn gives you the power to reach out to hundreds more people.

That and actually breaking the mundane every day cycle, has its own benefits. Find out about events and tradeshows in your industry sector, know your market…….and keep up!

It’s a minefield even if you have your own database, so buying in new data is a viable option. But it needs careful thought before you start your campaign.

Having worked with our own data and that of our clients for many years, we reckon there are 5 main factors to consider when buying data. Follow these simple rules and you’ll save time, money and hassle down the line.

1. Decide your target customer criteria.

One of the best ways to identify your ideal target market profile is to look at your existing customer base. Do you want more customers like the ones you’ve got? Or do you want to look farther afield, target bigger companies or hit different vertical sectors? Spend some time carefully profiling your ideal target customers in terms of:

• Location: Consider how far you’re prepared to travel for a sales meeting or to deliver. Select your target area by postcode, town/city, county or just by radial distance from your office.
• Size: Think carefully about the size of business you want to target either by the  number of staff they employ or their level of turnover.
• Business type: Do you sell your products or services to solicitors, accountants or manufacturers? Dun & Bradstreet’s SIC codes can help you decide who to target.
• Decision maker contact: Who will make the decision to buy from you? Consider the likely job titles of the people you want to target.

If you struggle with any of this, have your customer database analysed and profiled in very specific terms to identify who you want to target.

2. Plan your communication channels.

For best results, take a “joined up” approach to your communications. For instance, when you buy your data, order email addresses and phone numbers, as well as contact names and office addresses. An email to your contacts followed up with a phone call works better than just a single pronged approach of a telephone call alone.

You can monitor the key metrics of your your email campaign, then focus your telemarketing on the contacts that have opened your email and clicked through to your website. It also means that when you make the call, it isn’t completely “cold” and the email may still be in the recipient’s mind.

Once you know how you are going to communicate, you know what data you need to buy in. There are specialist companies that just sell postal addresses and phone numbers, and others that sell email addresses, contact names.

3. Don’t target your existing customers!

You don’t want to waste money buying the contact details of customers you’ve already got.

Most data providers will remove any contact details you give them so that you don’t buy records already in your database. If you have a large database you will need to send details of the contacts such as company name, postcode and telephone number. They’ll also be more than willing to sign a non-disclosure agreement. If not, beware!

It is far better to remove your existing client records at this stage. Not only do you avoid wasting your money buying them in again. You’ll also avoid the embarrassment of targeting your existing clients by mistake!

4. Plan the frequency of your campaigns.

Before you buy in your new contact data, you will need to decide how many times you want to contact them.

Most providers supply data on license only. Typically you’ll have a choice of anything from single or one-time use to multiple use over a 12 month period.  Generally speaking, and depending on your objectives, it may be better to take out a 12 month ‘multiple use’ license, though it will be a bit more expensive.

This means that you can call, email and send mail shots to your new contacts as often as you like within the license period. Some providers will have a ‘reasonable use’ clause in the contract, and of course, best practice dictates that you must respect unsubscribe requests.

5. Where are you going to get the data from?

Before you go ahead and purchase any data, see if you can find anyone to recommend the data provider you are considering. Certain data providers specialise in certain types of data. Some provide B2B data only, others provide B2C data.

Others still specialise in certain vertical market sectors such as public sector, accounting practices or IT and telecoms.

Make sure that your data provider is able to provide all the contact details you require. It’s no good finding out you’ve only got telephone numbers after you’ve bought your data, if what you wanted was email addresses.

Finally, compare buying your data online from “self service” providers with a “full service” provider that will do all the searching donkey work for you!

Good luck!

This – and the massive changes in buyer behaviour brought about by the internet – has led some people to question the value of telemarketing.

Our view on this is that there’s a role for every form of media or ‘channel’, including telemarketing, as long as it’s part of a “joined up” or “multi-channel” approach to marketing.

Google supports this position, because it uses display advertising, direct mail, email and the web as part of its mix. B2B Marketing magazine and eConsultancy are two well-respected B2B marketing voices that also subscribe to the view that the best marketing strategies use integrated and multi-channel activities.

Telemarketing has its place. So here are our Top 10 Tips for those looking to carry out some calling for yourself:

1.       Book a regular slot each week to do some calling. It is impossible to get hold of everyone on the first call, so if you’re asked to call back next week and you have no time booked, it probably won’t happen! Cold calling is always the first thing you can put off too. Anything seems preferable to picking up that phone!

2.       Get in the right state of mind – if you think you’re not going to get any leads, then you probably won’t. Think positively and DO something that makes you feel more positive before you start the calling. Play some music, go for a run – anything that gets you upbeat.  If you still don’t feel positive, then re-schedule. But that doesn’t mean you can keep re-scheduling throughout the whole year!

3.       Set realistic expectations. It depends who you are calling and what you are seling, but you might have to make 100 calls before you get a positive response. I have spoken to people who after making 3 calls and getting 3 “no” responses, have felt they can’t carry on. Coming from an expert,  it nearly always takes more than 3 calls to get a positive response!!!

4.       Keep a track of your stats. If you are calling the same target contacts with the same message, you soon get a rough idea of how many calls you need to make before you convert to a positive outcome. You can then set very realistic goals, and know how long you need to spend calling before you get a conversion.

5.       Don’t take it personally. If you’re a sensitive type, better toughen up! That’s why lots of businesses owners use an external company to do the calling. Removing yourself from the ‘personal’ side of the responses has advantages and disadvantages. But lots of very sensible and creative people take a “no” response personally and then really struggle to get back into the “creative mode”. Remember: they’re not saying “no” to you as a person, they are saying “no” to what you are selling.

6.       Give yourself a reward when you get a positive response! It’s worth celebrating and feeling good for a moment before you get back to the job.  We are forever beating ourselves up when we do something wrong – so pat yourself on the back…. or open a box of chocolates!

7.       Know what the objections might be and plan your responses to them. Don’t try and overcome all objections, but recognise that not all your prospects are in a position to benefit from your services right now. Instead try and gain their agreement to call back at a future point when they may be thinking about a purchase. It’s all about timing. They’re not saying “no”, they’re saying “no – not now!”

8.       Focus on the outcome and be clear what you want it to be. Think about how positive you will feel if you get a new customer from your calling, and avoid dwelling on the negatives. Know what you are asking for: interest in an appointment, permission to send information, agreement for a future call – even a sale! If nothing else, try and gather some concrete information about the purchase decision making process, in particular the timing of the decision, the name of the decision maker and any factors which may influence the decision, such as price. That information is gold dust.

9.       Show interest through positive questions. Nobody likes getting a phone call from someone who just talks at them. At the same time, people will see straight through you if you start by asking “How are you today?” (I personally hate that!) Showing interest through positive questions is really important because it allows you to engage with your contact in a way that is meaningful and builds rapport. Use their name and company name to make them feel comfortable with you. Let them tell you about their business. Listen. Pick up on their points.

10.   Pick up the phone!!!!