by tradesmeninsights | Dec 10, 2014 | Marketing Tips, Marketing Tools, Traditional Marketing
Let’s face it, in your world, qualified leads are or should be the holy grail of marketing. According to a report by Marketing Sherpa, 78% of B2B marketers biggest challenge is generating qualified leads.
Here are some tips on how you can improve your process:
- Create a plan – that will include message, method of delivery, when to hand lead to sales and measuring ROI.
- Define your USP – What is your unique selling proposition? What makes you or your offer different from the competition?
- Offer them something of value for free – If you want them to start an engagement, you need to show some good faith and give them a tool they can use everyday (conversation chart, smart phone button, competitive parts interchange).
- Match the offer to the audience – Not all messages are for all audiences. A concrete tool offer to a HVAC contractor probably won’t get much return.
- Capture and nurture leads – Once you get a lead, there has to be some qualifications done before sending it to sales. We’re not trying to overload the sales department with leads, rather we want to give them qualified leads that they are excited about calling on.
- Handing off the lead to sales – Depending on the criteria that you’ve developed, you need to forward the lead and what you know about it (in the sales funnel) so when sales calls on them, they know what to talk about, i.e., initial evaluation stages, engineering comparison questions or ready-to-buy type of questions.
- Close the loop on the lead – Did they buy? If not, why? This should be documented in a CRM system so we know why you’re gaining or losing sales.
- Review performance – Repeat what’s working and stop what isn’t.
by tradesmeninsights | Nov 3, 2011 | Marketing Trends, Social Marketing, Traditional Marketing
“The Road to Hell is paved with good intentions.”
I don’t know who said it but it’s a timeless truth. With the soft economy over the past few years and downsizing of staffs, the overall business climate has changed. Marketing departments are being asked to do more with less. In the B2B field where we operate, social media wasn’t even on the radar screen a few years ago, but now it’s at the forefront. While social media doesn’t have much outside costs, it does take its toll on inside time and talent.
A recent study by Marketing Sherpa, the 2012 B2B marketing benchmark report, brought up some disturbing facts. The biggest was that 62% of marketers biggest challenge was lack of resources!
How are marketing departments supposed to be putting out class A stuff when there isn’t enough time in the day? Companies need to recognize that a good sales plan starts with a good marketing plan. Find help for your department whether it’s freelance or competent agencies that know your market. As business gets better, if you don’t speak out, they will try to put even more things on your plate.
Those are my thoughts; any comments?
by tradesmeninsights | Aug 26, 2009 | Marketing Trends, Social Marketing
Would it surprise you to learn that the biggest gains in who’s using social media are among older users? According to a report in eMarketer, “consumer internet barometer” U.S. internet users who visited a social site in the 2nd quarter of ’09 rose 16% over last year. Females still lead males in usage and 70% of users were under the age of 35. The most popular sites in order were: Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn and Twitter.
Now that we know who uses it, we can tackle the why.
According to a post in eMarketer, marketers surveyed by Marketing Sherpa in late 2008 found that increasing brand reputation and awareness, along with improved search engines, headed up the reasons why they thought social media was an effective tool. Blog or social media advertising, online news release distribution and blogging led the way as far as tactics they thought to be useful.
Now based on what you just read, what do you think business executives think of social media?
Sean Callahan from BtoB online reported recently on a survey conducted by Russell Herder and Ethos business law that business executives were grappling with social media. The online survey of 438 executives showed:
- 51% fear social media and that it could be detrimental to employee productivity
- 49% said social media could damage the company’s reputation
At the same time they said:
- 81% can enhance relationships with customers
- 69% can aid in recruiting
- 64% it could function as a customer service tool
About 70% say they are going to increase their social media, however only 33% had a social media policy in place.
I don’t know about you, but I think these guys are talking out of both sides of their mouth. The only thing they should do is support a social program. They should stick to what they know and do well and let the marketing departments do their jobs.
What are your thoughts?
